Contents

Star rating

Crew members come in different rarities (star rating), from common to legendary. However, every character in game is obtained one star at a time - for instance an Enterprise-E Picard has a five stars potential, but will have one filled star and four empty stars (★☆☆☆☆).

When a player has several copies of a character, they can merge them in order to obtain a stronger version of that character. This can be done only if that crew member isn't at maximum rank, i.e. if there is a star to be filled. A common Neelix can't be fused since he has no empty star, an uncommon Telek R'Mor (★☆) can be fused once to reach his potential (★★), and an Enterprise-E Picard will need four fusions to achieve his potential (★★★★★).

Fusing improves the ship battle ability of a character. The effect of fusion on skills is discussed below.

Experience and levels

Total XP required to reach a certain level. Despite looking exponential, a loglog plot suggests a much more complex behaviour. However the result is the same: the cost of XP per level increases enormously.

Your crew gains experience (XP) by participating in away missions, space battles or by receiving training programs. When reaching a certain amount of XP, the crew member level increases. The required XP does not depend on star rating - a common crew member requires as much as a legendary one.

The amount of experience required to pass to reach a milestone (a level that is multiple of ten). Thanks to the forum user UL1R53 for collecting and sharing this data.

Level

From 1 to thismilestone

From lastmilestone

Milestone Trainings Equivalent*

10

135

135

14

6

<2

<1

<1

20

510

375

38

15

4

<1

<1

30

2310

1800

180

72

18

4

<1

40

7760

5450

545

218

55

11

<3

50

18210

10450

1045

418

105

21

<5

60

36210

18000

1800

720

180

36

8

70

64210

28000

2800

1120

280

56

12

80

110460

46250

4625

1850

463

93

19

90

181710

71250

7125

2850

713

143

29

100

293910

112200

11220

4488

1122

<225

<45

A detailed level-by-level analysis is given here:

Crew XP Needed by Level

Lvl

1-10

Lvl

11-20

Lvl

21-30

Lvl

31-40

Lvl

41-50

1

-

11

20

21

90

31

320

41

820

2

5

12

20

22

110

32

370

42

870

3

10

13

25

23

130

33

420

43

920

4

10

14

25

24

150

34

470

44

970

5

15

15

25

25

170

35

520

45

1,020

6

15

16

40

26

190

36

570

46

1,070

7

20

17

40

27

210

37

620

47

1,120

8

20

18

55

28

230

38

670

48

1,170

9

20

19

55

29

250

39

720

49

1,220

10

20

20

70

30

270

40

770

50

1,270

135

375

1,800

5,450

10,450

Lvl

51-60

Lvl

61-70

Lvl

71-80

Lvl

81-90

Lvl

91-100

51

1,350

61

2,350

71

3,500

81

6,000

91

8,800

52

1,450

62

2,450

72

3,750

82

6,250

92

9,400

53

1,550

63

2,550

73

4,000

83

6,500

93

10,000

54

1,650

64

2,650

74

4,250

84

6,750

94

10,500

55

1,750

65

2,750

75

4,500

85

7,000

95

11,000

56

1,850

66

2,850

76

4,750

86

7,250

96

11,500

57

1,950

67

2,950

77

5,000

87

7,500

97

12,000

58

2,050

68

3,050

78

5,250

88

7,750

98

12,500

59

2,150

69

3,150

79

5,500

89

8,000

99

13,000

60

2,250

70

3,250

80

5,750

90

8,250

100

13,500

18,000

28,000

46,250

71,250

112,200

As a side note, a character doesn't gain experience when they have reached a milestone but haven't been advanced.

Skills

(Disclaimer: changes in the balance can result in changes to character growth. This info was up-to-date in March 2016.)

The skill of a crewmember in the six different types of challenge (, , , , and ) can be increased in ways: by increasing the level or by equipping an item. Item mechanics are not covered here.

The skill received for passing a level depends on the star rating and on the character progression (which is a specific to each character).

Skill proficiency (the random number that is rolled during away missions) does not depend on characters, but depends entirely on items. It will be neglected here.

As an example however, let's consider Vedek Winn Adami's progression between level 50 and level 60. Of all the items she equips, only her UncommonWinn's Robes ★★ grants a skill boost (15 ). So her "natural progression" (that is, subtracting 15 ) is:

Rating

Skills at 50

Skills at 60

Increase

Overall increase

★☆☆

99 164

110 200

11 21

32

★★☆

123 182

139 221

16 24

40

★★★

157 222

180 269

23 32

55

It can be shown that this progression is fairly linear: ★★★ Vedek Winn tends to gain 23 more overall points each ten levels than ★☆☆ Vedek Winn, resulting in a estimated difference of 230 points at level 100.

A faster overview on Commando Crusher as an example of a three-skill character. Once again the proficiency is neglected and the added skill values from items were subtracted (+5 and +7 between level 10 and 20, +10 between level 20 and level 30).

Rating

Increase between 10 and 20

Increase between 20 and 30

Overall increase

★☆☆

12 6 20

12 6 20

38

★★☆

17 9 24

17 9 24

50

★★★

24 12 32

24 12 32

68

Once again, there is a much stronger progression for a character with a max rating. Also, Commando Crusher's main skill () grows as fast as Vedek Winn's main skill (), but Crusher's overall progression is stronger since she has a third skill.

The next question is, clearly, the difference between a Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra-Rare and Legendary character. As an example, let's have a look at Captain Janeway.

Rating

Skill increase every 10 levels

Overall increase

★☆☆☆

20 12 12

44

★★☆☆

25 17 17

59

★★★☆

33 24 24

81

★★★★

45 35 35

115

While her overall growth is surely bigger, her growth is comparable to the growth of a Rare character of equal star rating. She has however three advantages: she can upgrade to ★★★★, she can equip much more powerful items, and her two non-main skills ( and ) grow at an equal pace.

There are little data available for Legendary crew. For Mirror Kirk, the progression seems to be:

Rating

Skill increase every 10 levels

31 28.5

34 29

42 38

55 50

70 62

Note that Mirror Kirk gains about 320 and 298 from his initial stats and from the items he equips - compare this to the 310 and 285 he gains as , and to 700 and 620 he gains as .

We can set propose the following conclusions (which are yet to be tested more thoroughly):

Increasing the star rating of a character (if possible) enormously increases their potential. The difference seems minimal at low level and star ratings, but it can be massive at high levels and star ratings.

Crewmembers with two skills don't necessarily increase their skill faster than those with three skills.

Items however make a big difference. Characters with two skills equip items that help only their two skills, and thus can gain more in their main skills. Rarer characters also can equip more powerful items.

Crew progression fusion rule of thumb

As a General rule of thumb, the effect of fusing a character on it's base skill can be expressed as a percentage of the difference between the skill level of the fully fused character to its self at the same level and equipment at 1 star.
The difference in percentage is summarized in the table:

Star Rating

to

to

to

to

100%

40%

60%

20%

35%

45%

6.5%

20%

35%

38.5%

As an example, let's have a look at Captain Janeway Diplomacy skill:
Fully fused fully equipped at level 100, Captain Janeway has a Diplomacy skill level of 532, while at 1 star but fully equipped at level 100, she has a Diplomacy skill of only 304.
The effect of fusion on her base Diplomacy skill, or her fusion difference is therefore 532 - 304 = 228.
To estimate Captain Janeway Diplomacy skill 2 star fusion, fully equipped at level 100, take 20% of her fusion difference: 228 * 20% = 45.6 and add it to her 1 star fusion level: 304 + 45.6 = 349.6.
Captain Janeway 2 star fusion, fully equipped at level 100 actually has a Diplomacy skill level of 355, only a 5 difference from the estimation.

This rule of thumb has been found to give good results but should only be used where real information is unavailable.

Fusion difference averages at level 100

In case no data is available the average fusion difference at level 100 can be used.
The averages are from all the characters of that star rating and are divided to primary skill (the highest skill at no fusion and level 1), high secondary skill (close to the primary at no fusion and level 1), and low secondary skill (far from the primary).
The average differences for fully equipped level 100 is summarized in the table: